Season 12 Update - State of Play

  • Sonicbob
    Champion
    Rare Employee

    Hey everyone,

    Following on from last week's State of Play, I wanted to jump back in and share some updates!

    Guilds & 2nd May Hotfix
    While we mitigated the initial issues seen with our update on April 25th, we were still operating with reduced functionality through the weekend and into our Season 12 launch earlier this week.
    With the team now confident in the resolution, we are scheduling a maintenance window on Thursday 2nd May to deploy a hotfix to address this and return full Guild functionality. Players should check our social channels for more on this maintenance window, which will be combined with a small game update to download.

    Along with returning Guilds functionality this hotfix will also resolve some recently identified rendering issues with water planes. The visible internal water planes on low quality graphics settings have been fixed and the incorrect water shadows shown around the ship on high quality graphics settings have also been fixed.

    Game Health
    While the game update on 25th April delivered fixes to some high impact stability issues, I shared last time that we hadn't stuck the landing on some of our known long-standing issues which are continuing to cause frustration with our players.

    We've prioritised efforts directly in this space and have a number of fixes heading into Insider testing for this weekend, and if we get the green light on these we'll be preparing a further hotfix for early next week to address these ahead of our next scheduled update later in May.

    This hotfix will target the following areas:

    • Passive Megalodon Encounters - The team have identified the root cause as to why Meg encounters suddenly become passive and de-spawn, even when anchored down and attacking.
    • Gunpowder Keg Detonation - A fix is now incoming for players who find they are unable to detonate a held gunpowder keg when firing into it.
    • Throwing Knife Spam - A fix for an issue discovered early in Season 12's launch where players can sometimes become stuck in a state where they can rapidly throw throwing knives faster than intended.
    • Skeleton Squared Commendation - A fix for the Skeleton Squared Commendation, ensuring that players can progress this when using the Bone Caller.

    While the above areas are being targeted for this follow-up hotfix next week, the team are continuing to work and gain confidence in the issue causing missing ship names and scenarios where players joining in progress to an active World Event may experience Hazelnutbeard or an infinite loading screen.

    Season 12
    While Season 12 is only a mere 24 hours old as I write this, we are incredibly happy with how this recent Season has landed with players and the stories these new tools and weapons are already creating.

    In the grand scheme of things, we are very happy at the quality bar we've hit with these features - and kudos to our Insiders who have been testing and feeding back on the various areas over many months.

    The team however have been closely monitoring the feedback and bug reports coming in overnight, so I wanted to share some of the areas the team are investigating right now:

    • Throwing Knives - The team are investigating issues with stuttering in some movement scenarios and are assessing the potential issues that having knives stuck in ship interactables can have on the wider boarding meta.
    • Bone Caller - Following reports that Bone Caller skeletons are revealing tucked players on ships, the team are assessing this and we'll be sharing more soon.
    • Double Barrel Pistol - The team are investigating a few reports where players appear unable to reload the new pistol from an ammo crate - however, this is proving tough to reproduce.
    • Combat Balance - It clearly goes without saying, but with the introduction of new weapons and tools into the meta, the team are assessing the state of combat and where potential balancing changes may be needed. Nothing to share on this right now as we'll be continuing to monitor and listen, but we'll share more on our plans here when we have them.

    We appreciate all of the bug reports and feedback provided by players since we brought updates to the game over the last few weeks - and thank you all for your patience as we bring fixes to the issues that matter most to you!

    Drew 'Sonicbob' Stevens

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  • Tesiccl
    Lord
    Insider

    Anything regarding the rarity of the Horn of Fair Winds? Seems to be impossible to find.

  • Kwelin
    Marauder
    Insider

    Keyboard and Mouse is still bugged on Xbox Series X. The mouse is bugged in the UI and the Scroll Wheel Up and Scroll Wheel Down both use 2 ticks instead of 1.

  • Leator
    Legend
    Partner
    Insider
    Boatswain
    Founder

    @tesiccl I agree, it could use some fine tuning, however I‘m glad it‘s not too common, giving runners a chance to just blow the horn and be gone.

  • PragmaticNDA
    Marauder
    Insider

    @leator
    Seconded, but our crew did find 3 during our today's sailing so they're not exceptionally rare (or then we're just very, very lucky).

  • Taaaamas
    Legend
    Boatswain

    Main hope is that the Horn of Fair Winds gets an increase in chance to find!
    Such a fun tool, but can't find one anywhere yet! :(

  • BurnBacon
    Champion
    Insider

    Bone Caller - Following reports that Bone Caller skeletons are revealing tucked players on ships, the team are assessing this and we'll be sharing more soon.

    What wrong with this? I have skeletons on my ship and if someone is tucking, they should be found.

    If nobody, I wasted a rare item for nothing. It works

  • llIswaggIll
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    Any fix for the constant LongBeard errors? Also there's a game breaking bug where one person leaves, it kicks some people off the crew. This happens primarily on Xbox consoles and could be also happening on PS5. Please fix :)

  • TheMartyr050
    Master
    Insider

    @pragmaticnda you are lucky, I checked about 10 shipwrecks, and 10 shrines/treasuries, only found 1

  • PragmaticNDA
    Marauder
    Insider

    @themartyr050 We did do a coral bottle quest, might have something to do with it? Just the one from the treasury, two from shipwrecks. Can't remember if the shipwreck was a reaper chest/bounty one or not.

  • Toby Echozap978
    Master
    Insider

    glad to hear alot of bugs in game are being fixed. i hope more come ( including the issue i at least am having on steam to do with the purchased plunder pass not activating. requests are in with approticarate places but noting to hope no one else is facing this. ) but very glad to see stuff is on radar and being fixed.

  • JackGrimm6899
    Captain
    Insider

    Regarding the Horn commendation, I've seen someone post that 250 are needed for Grade 5.
    Is that correct? If so, that's a near impossible number with their current spawn rates.

  • Chenzo01
    Captain
    Insider

    @burnbacon said in Season 12 Update - State of Play:

    Bone Caller - Following reports that Bone Caller skeletons are revealing tucked players on ships, the team are assessing this and we'll be sharing more soon.

    What wrong with this? I have skeletons on my ship and if someone is tucking, they should be found.

    Came here to say this? Sounds like they're working as intended.

  • Tesiccl
    Lord
    Insider

    @leator anything’s better than the current spawn rate ^^

  • IamDBPooper
    Marauder
    Insider

    Really hope the horn gets a nerf on the rarity for shrines, way too uncommon for 250 sold. gonna have to do like 1000 shrines for the whole commendation.

  • Fysics3037
    Sailor

    Double Barrel has found a solid spot in the meta as a good longer range companion to the Eye of Reach. Although now Flintlock has been almost pushed out of the meta, it's only defining feature being it's fast reload speed. I think an effective change for it would be make it slightly faster to swap to or a buff in range, but a damage increase is a big nono cus it would pair too well with DB.

    Throwing Knives have a really good potential for damage and are very versatile, but I personally was very disappointed in how slow the movement was when throwing. I think nerfing the damage slightly, down to ~45. Then giving it an option for toggle throw (do you don't have to hold RMB) and engaging movement (like the DBs charge) would create a much more engaging and fun weapon, while not allowing it to be too powerful.

  • Capt Swabbie
    Master
    Insider

    Is there any expected resolutions for the shipwright supplies still not working as intended, or the new longbeard crashes?

  • MBL666
    Captain
    Insider

    I’ve experienced the double pistol not reloading on a sea fort, ammo crates or pick up ammo failed to reload the weapon even after a trip to the ferry of the damned.
    If it helps, I didn’t have any issues when reloading while there were shots in the chamber but if I was empty, it didn’t refill with ammo

  • Darkseason80
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    Great update but please don’t nerf the bone Skellis. I want them hunting tucked players on my boat. Or am i the only one here who thinks that. Poll anyone?

  • MBL666
    Captain
    Insider

    @burnbacon what if they were your skeletons, they shouldn’t attack the player who threw the bone caller and decided to tuck while your new minions do all the work

  • SlyAceZeta
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @sonicbob said in Season 12 Update - State of Play:

    • Bone Caller - Following reports that Bone Caller skeletons are revealing tucked players on ships, the team are assessing this and we'll be sharing more soon.

    Adding my voice to the mix, this is absolutely something that should be allowed. The benefit is finding tucked players, but the drawback is having to use the Bone Caller to do it, and if there aren't any tucked players, then you've wasted a Bone Caller, but you don't need to do that if you manually look for tucked players. It's balanced and reasonable. Please don't remove this functionality.

  • Darkseason80
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    @tesiccl totally agree here: I’ve spent two days trying to find one. It’s more elusive than the shrouded lie.

  • SardonicSage792
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @tesiccl do a treasury

  • Fysics3037
    Sailor

    Also for anyone wondering the Bone Caller Skeletons are NOT supposed to be able to find players using hide emotes.

  • ExpertTurtle421
    Master
    Insider

    I hope very long downloads will be fixed as well. I can't just log into the game from the 30th, because the game doesn't load at all.

  • Jxwk
    Lord
    Insider
    Founder

    Any news about the launch error "unrecognized game client. cannot continue" since the introduction on the anti-cheat? I don't get how the previous stated issues are being focused first when there is still major one not being fixed.....

  • BurnBacon
    Champion
    Insider

    @chenzo01

    Came here to say this? Sounds like they're working as intended.

    Right? It should work as it should. Dont change it because tuckers get found.

  • BurnBacon
    Champion
    Insider

    @mbl666 said in Season 12 Update - State of Play:

    @burnbacon what if they were your skeletons, they shouldn’t attack the player who threw the bone caller and decided to tuck while your new minions do all the work

    Why would I tuck...with active skeletons, and they dont attack the summoner. They just..stand there, zombie like.

  • kurocat471
    Master
    Insider

    @slyacezeta said in Season 12 Update - State of Play:

    @sonicbob said in Season 12 Update - State of Play:

    • Bone Caller - Following reports that Bone Caller skeletons are revealing tucked players on ships, the team are assessing this and we'll be sharing more soon.

    Adding my voice to the mix, this is absolutely something that should be allowed. The benefit is finding tucked players, but the drawback is having to use the Bone Caller to do it, and if there aren't any tucked players, then you've wasted a Bone Caller, but you don't need to do that if you manually look for tucked players. It's balanced and reasonable. Please don't remove this functionality.

    it's not functionality, it's a bug. they're supposed to not target players using hide emotes that hide your username, but sometimes, they do, so currently, it's inconsistent and unbalanced. if you want it added as a feature that's fine, suggest it in the proper places, but don't treat it like they're removing a feature by fixing something unintended

  • Xeriel
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @sonicbob said in Season 12 Update - State of Play:

    • Combat Balance - It clearly goes without saying, but with the introduction of new weapons and tools into the meta, the team are assessing the state of combat and where potential balancing changes may be needed. Nothing to share on this right now as we'll be continuing to monitor and listen, but we'll share more on our plans here when we have them.

    Are you considering the balance of previously existing weapons in the context of the new loadouts? Slowly sneaking up on a player to do a strong knife backstab attack is fun thematically, but the fact that the blunderbuss can 1-shot an enemy without any movement penalty makes it stronger overall to sneak up on people. It seems like either the melee, movement reduced attack should deal full damage, or the ranged AoE should be adjusted down to lose this ability.

  • WCPsycho
    Master
    Insider

    Loading into games got a whole lot worse for me. 10-minute waits and Hazelnut beards litter my game. Here's hoping that gets addressed.

  • Robogames05
    Lord
    Insider

    anything regarding crashing at a skeleton fort (and probably other world events too) and then not being allowed to rejoin your game and getting constant Hazelnutbeards whenever you try join back?
    being solo this means your boat is just lost, no way to get it back
    if you have a teammate at least they can sail the boat out of render distance of the fort to allow you to join; but if you're solo that boat is lost, its gone, forget about it
    try inviting a crewmate? they'll have the same thing
    and this happens pretty frequently with the amount of game crashes recently
    I may just be slightly mad that I just lost my boat to this
    but please just fix it

  • I BreadGod I
    Ship Mate

    What about the inability to rejoin sessions near a world event? I have been in and seen several instances where crashing at a world event makes it so when you rejoin, you spawn dead (this part is fine) but then seconds later it kicks you from the game again. The cycle repeats until the ship at the event leaves the range of the event, but this is crippling for solos

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